Easy Salami and Cheese Board with Wine Pairings
My wife and I love the chance to relax with a snack in the late afternoon on a Saturday before I get into cooking mode. Sometimes we will head to a restaurant for an appetizer and a glass of wine. But I often like to put together a simple app to enjoy at home.
If I’m cooking dinner, I want that late afternoon app to be pretty easy, to save my energy for the main course. Enter the Easy Salami and Cheese Board featuring Olli Snack Packs!
A salami and cheese board made with Olli Snack Packs.
ABOUT OLLI’S SNACK PACKS
Starting with Olli’s Snack Packs is a great way to make preparing a cheese board with salami a breeze! Each pack comes with a single serving of meat, cheese and artisanal crackers. The salami and cheese are pre-sliced, so you simply need to open up the package to start assembling your charcuterie board!
You can use the store locator on the Olli website to find where to purchase the Olli Snack Packs in your area. The same link can also be used to order online.
Olli Sallumeria, the maker of Olli’s Snack Packs, brings four generations of experience to the business. Their salumi has a fresh taste through an approach developed over the years that focuses on three factors — meat, ingredients, and method of production.
INGREDIENTS
Here’s what you will need for this salami and cheese board:
3 packs of Olli’s Snack Packs – a variety is nice. We used a combination of the Genoa salami with fontina cheese; sopresseta and cheddar cheese; and the pepperoni with mozzarella. Choose the variety that strikes your fancy! You can have fun experimenting with different combinations.
Some extra prosciutto (optional) – We opened the Olli’s Snack Pack with prosciutto and mozzarella the day before assembling our board for this post. I saved a bit of the prosciutto to add to the board.
A handful of grapes is a nice addition to the board.
Other items you could add to this charcuterie board if you like include olives, roasted red peppers and dried fruit.
HOW TO MAKE A CHEESE BOARD WITH SALAMI
Once you have the Snack Packs ready, it’s easy to make this salami and cheese board!
First, get your “board” ready. I have a wooden board I use for charcuterie and cheese, but you could use any clean cutting board for this purpose. You can also use a serving platter if you would like.
One of the Olli’s Snack Packs has just the right amount of meat to form a row on our board, making this super easy.
Take the cheese from an Olli Snack Pack and arrange it in a row next to the layer of salami.
Use another Snack Pack salami to create another row of meat next to the cheese. Again, use the cheese from that pack to create another row next to the salami.
Place the crackers from the Snack Packs in a couple of piles near the edge of the board.
Finish the board by arranging any extra items you choose around the edge of the rows of salami and cheese.
We used a bit of extra prosciutto and some grapes. That worked great, but feel free to vary things if you like.
The charcuterie board we created easily can serve 4 people, with it being the only snack available. To serve more people, simply get more Olli Snack Packs and repeat the process to make more rows of salami and cheese.
This board could serve more people if you were serving it along with other appetizers at a larger gathering. So, keep this easy charcuterie board in mind for game day and the holidays!
SERVING AND ENJOYING THE BOARD
This salami and cheese board is ready to serve after you’ve followed the above steps.
If you are enjoying this board relaxing informally at home, you can just grab what you like directly from the board. Otherwise, offer small appetizer plates for people to grab what they want.
I enjoyed first sampling pieces of the salami on their own to get a sense of the unique flavors of each type, and to test out wine pairings. I did also enjoy eating the salami along with cheese, as the mild cheese serves as a nice complement to the zesty flavors of the meat.
WINE PAIRINGS
First, I considered the style of wine that would work with the salami. “Fresh reds” is the category that came to mind – red wine that is on the lighter side, with some good fruit and acidity, without too much tannins. This style can complement salami with its spicy and savory characteristics.
With this salami’s Italian roots, choosing an Italian red wine is a natural choice. We went with a Dolcetto — the 2021 Rocca Felice Dolcetto D’Alba– and that worked well. You could also try a Barbera in the Italian red wine category, or perhaps a lighter Sangiovese (Chianti or similar).
Sparkling wine could also be an option, as bubbles can serve as a nice counterpoint to the spicy and salty aspects of the board. Sticking with the Italian theme, I’d go for a Prosecco in the bubbly department. Or you could try a Lambrusco, the fruit-forward sparkling red wine.
Moving away from Italy, we also tested a Carignan-based red blend from the Languedoc region of France — the 2020 Maxime Magnon La Démarrante. This red wine has good acidity that worked with the charcuterie.
We also tested a Ravenswood Lodi Zinfandel. This fruit-forward red wine tasted a bit sweet on the palate, offsetting the spicy aspects of the salami. While my first choice would still be an Italian wine like the Dolcetto, but Zinfandel is a good option if you have a bottle handy or are more inclined toward New World style wines.